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Ryan, a
young doctor is assigned to a remote village
in Kalimantan island, as part of official duty
before he can start his profession as general
practitioner. The village is actually part of his
past where his family came from. But even on arrival
in airport he’s already exposed to some mysterious
and scary apparitions of a female ghost, and more
in the village. Along with his duty he also had to
deal with the superstitious and unwelcoming society,
as well as confrontation with local shaman. Then
he starts to sniff some mystery of missing people
in the village. His friends arrival in the village
for holiday could only make Ryan’s term of duty more
complicated as heads start rolling mysteriously.
What does he actually face?
The complete title of this movie is The Shaman:
Sang Pencabut Nyawa, literally translated as The
Shaman: The Soul Wretcher, or The Shaman: The Grim
Reaper. Apparently there were plenty of problems
that the producers had to face, considering the fact
that the movie is supposed to have been shown maybe
around 6-8 months prior to the current release date,
but the show was delayed frequently. Then there’s
news in 21cineplex site giving the directors’
statement that it has to finalize a lot of things
during post production and also a bit of resentment
due to some scenes can’t make it due to censorship.
I had a bad feeling about it too.
The background setting is quite interesting this
time. Kalimantan is one of the biggest islands in the
Indonesian archipelago where the forest is still quite
dense. Some areas are even still uncharted – untouched
by civilization. The majority ethnic inhabiting
this island is Dayak people, where their ancestors
are notoriously alleged as man-eaters, as well as
possessing great black magic power that make most
people think twice to mess around with them. And
in fact until today this stereotype of associating
Dayak people with black magic is still common. So
with this background setting of Dayak territory,
it sure sounds very, very, promising for me.
So let’s start with the good news first. I see that
the producer and director at least made their greatest
attempt to shoot on location (or at least in other
location that resembles Kalimantan). This works
quite well. So instead of being stuck in usual
residential area or merely studio backlot as in most
Indonesian trashy horror, here we are brought into
a remote village in the middle of woods, there are
rivers, gorge, valley, etc. This sure enriches the
feeling. About the plot flow, surely enough, it’s
quite satisfying. The tales are brought to you in
quite a gripping way, and certainly will edge the
audience to their seats. Mysteries and riddles are
woven quite neat in an actually ordinary slasher a
nd murder mysteries but mixed with “mystical horror”
background. Although it’s rather a pity that the
conclusion is too simple and seems to
be rushed too soon.
In terms of action, for Indonesian horror movie,
I must say The Shaman is quite violent. Though may
not satisfy you gorehounds, certainly it shows quite
plenty of gore, specially on graphic depiction
(but very short) of surgery. The director might try
to imitate Saw. Nice try, but looks like censorship
board is not accommodating at all, so I can’t fully
judge his capability to do it. But certainly the
surviving bits of sadistic scenes are quite horrifying,
scarier than most Indonesian horror. I must also
commend the make up artist, they’ve done good job
in depicting apparition of ghost with lost eyes,
deformed face, but NOT in usual, full of cliché
Nayato’s type of ghost makeup. Fight sequences are
quite brutal as well, not showing martial arts
prowess but more on brutal fight for survival.
It won’t be complete if you don’t involve shock
factor here, but fortunately the makers are playing
smart. No whirring cue, no deafening boom, and the
setup is smooth enough to bring the audience jumped
out of their seats when the trigger is pulled. Not
great of course, but certainly we’re fed up with
Nayato’s cliché and tactics of exploiting whirs and
booms, so this kind of setup is a great relief.
Most of the performers are doing OK, but certainly
not great. Besides the main character played by Oka
Antara (Hantu), I must take notes on the shaman’s
character, played by Indonesian veteran, Piet Pagau.
It’s so unfortunate that his talent is wasted here.
Piet is a character with unique look and certainly
quite menacing. He’s also a veteran of hundreds of
Indonesian movies as well as TV serials where he
mostly performed as big bad boss, henchman, and
things alike. But the character here is not developed
enough, whereas we certainly expect more devious
antagonist here. I believe Piet can do it.
Unfortunately the director decides not to dig
deeper in this section. And I don’t want to spoil
the ending but for a character who’s supposed to
be quite dreadful and sadistic, I’m very unsatisfied
to see that the shaman character ends up pathetically.
Gutting, plenty of blood, headless figure, heart
wrenching, and other possible violent acts - allegedly
lost due to censorship.
Not very noticeable but surely no annoying sound
effects here. The “boom” effect to amplify shocking
scene is quite effective.
Despite its too simple conclusion, The Shaman is
a quite exciting ride that could've been great
had the censorship not been so strong here.
Certainly another refreshment in the middle of
terrible flood of Indonesian cheesy
horrors these days.
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